A Jewish organization representing more than 2,500 Orthodox rabbis launched a billboard campaign in Times Square on Wednesday that condemns the “Free Palestine” movement for fueling the deadly rise of antisemitism in the US after the attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, The Algemeiner has learned.

The 10-second digital advertisement, organized by the Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV), reads: “Free Palestine = Support for Hamas = Calling for Genocide of Jews. America, Wake Up. It Never Ends With the Jews!” The ad will appear multiple times per hour and be live in Times Square for 30 days, according to CJV.

“When students on college campuses chant ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,’ America itself is at risk,” said CJV Executive Vice President Rabbi Yaakov Menken in a released statement. “We call upon all Americans to join us in speaking clearly about who and what the bloodthirsty ‘Free Palestine’ movement stands for, and the need to stamp it out.” CJV is the largest rabbinic public policy organization in America.

The United States has recorded more than 10,000 antisemitic incidents since the Hamas-led massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, according to data presented to the Israeli parliament’s Immigration, Absorption, and Diaspora Commission in January.

Since then, a terrorist set fire to the official residence of Jewish Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro because of the arsonist’s support for “Palestine” and the Palestinian people; two Israeli Embassy workers were murdered in Washington, DC, by a gunman who shouted “Free Palestine” before being arrested; and a man who threw Molotov cocktails at people rallying in Boulder, Colorado, for the Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip yelled “Free Palestine” during the terror attack.

At a congressional vigil last week for the two Israeli embassy employees murdered in May, US House Speaker Mike Johnson said “the ‘Free Palestine’ call has become a violent movement that collaborates with Hamas.”

“Too many Jewish organizations are afraid to say what Speaker Johnson finds obvious: the cry of ‘Free Palestine’ is the call of domestic terrorists,” said Menken. “Israel is the only free country in the Middle East. The one thing Israel is not free of is Jews, and that is what ‘Free Palestine’ aims to correct, in the model of Hitler’s Final Solution. They have no interest in building a nation but destroying one. They do not want to elevate Palestinian Arabs, but to eradicate Jews. This is classic antisemitism, and history proves that there is no greater danger to the continuity of a civilization.”

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British actor Jason Isaacs said he remains committed to wearing in public a pin honoring the Israelis held captive by Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip for 20 months because “it matters” to the families of hostages.

The “White Lotus” star, who is Jewish, has been seen on several red carpets this year wearing a yellow ribbon pin that draws awareness about the hostages abducted from Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Isaacs has worn the pin at the Los Angeles season three premiere of “The White Lotus” in February, the BRIT Awards in London in March, and the White House Correspondents’ Dinner and 42nd Miami Film Festival, both in April, among many other events. He also wore the pin during red carpet appearances last year, including the British Independent Film Awards and even the opening night of the production “Barcelona” in London’s West End.

The “Harry Potter” star said in an interview with Vulture published on Monday that he “always” wears the pin if he is making a red carpet or press appearance.

“I wear the hostage pin because there are innocent people who were taken from their homes. Most of them are peace activists who lived in border communities where they were ferrying sick kids to hospitals and working with people from Gaza constantly,” he said. “There are Holocaust survivors, there are children who were taken, there are people being starved and tortured and raped who have no access to the Red Cross.”

“People are rightfully talking and thinking about all the civilians that are in danger everywhere else,” he added. “But those people in tunnels, it’s now 600 days they’ve been there, they’ve been forgotten entirely.” He also admitted that he understands why many other celebrities have chosen not to wear similar pins publicly.

Hamas terrorists are still holding captive 53 men and women – including two Americans – who were abducted on Oct. 7, 2023, during the Hamas-led deadly rampage across southern Israel. They include several civilians who have been confirmed dead — such as 84-year-old Amiram Cooper and 86-year-old Arie Zalmanowicz — and their bodies are being held hostage by Hamas.

Isaacs told Vulture he has been called a “Zionist baby killer” and “Zionazi” for choosing to wear the hostage pin. “Even a yellow hostage pin for innocents is deemed political, which it isn’t,” he noted.

He additionally shared a story about the family of a hostage who thanked him for wearing the pin in public appearances.

“I now am aware that they are watching me and that it matters to them,” Isaacs explained. “If my son or sister or daughter or father was being kept in a tunnel somewhere and weighed 25 kilos now, or may have been strangled or shot, and it felt important to me that some actors somewhere wore the yellow hostage pin, then who am I to not wear it?”

The Bring Them Home Now campaign, which calls for the immediate return of the hostages, additionally thanked Isaacs for his commitment to wearing the pin in an Instagram post this week after his interview with Vulture was published.

During his conversation with the publication, Isaacs also shared his thoughts on the Israel-Hamas war. He said it is a complex issue and that he ultimately wishes for peace in the region for everyone. “Who doesn’t?” he asked. “I don’t know anybody, apart from the extremists on all sides, who want either continued war or tension.”

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US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi have spoken by phone several times since Israel began its strikes on Iran last week, in a bid to find a diplomatic end to the crisis, three diplomats told Reuters.

According to the diplomats, who asked not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter, Araqchi said Tehran would not return to negotiations unless Israel stopped the attacks, which began on June 13.

They said the talks included a brief discussion of a US proposal given to Iran at the end of May that aims to create a regional consortium that would enrich uranium outside of Iran, an offer Tehran has so far rejected.

US and Iranians officials did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the matter.

This week’s phone discussions were the most substantive direct talks since the two began negotiations in April. On those occasions, in Oman and Italy, the two men exchanged brief words when they encountered each other after indirect talks were held.

A regional diplomat close to Tehran said Araqchi had told Witkoff that Tehran “could show flexibility in the nuclear issue” if Washington pressured Israel to end the war.

A European diplomat said: “Araqchi told Witkoff Iran was ready to come back to nuclear talks, but it could not if Israel continued its bombing.”

Other than brief encounters after five rounds of indirect talks since April to discuss Iran‘s decades-old nuclear dispute, Araqchi and Witkoff had not previously held direct contacts.

A second regional diplomat who spoke to Reuters said “the [first] call was initiated by Washington, which also proposed a new offer” to overcome the deadlock over clashing red lines.

URANIUM ENRICHMENT

US President Donald Trump wants Tehran to end uranium enrichment on its soil, while Iran‘s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said Tehran’s right to enrichment is non-negotiable.

Trump has been keeping his cards close to his chest over whether he will order US forces to join Israel‘s bombing campaign that it says aims to destroy Iran‘s nuclear program and ballistic capabilities. But Trump offered a glimmer of hope that diplomacy could resume, saying Iranian officials wanted to come to Washington for a meeting.

He rebuffed President Emmanuel Macron earlier this week when the French leader said Trump had told G7 leaders at a summit in Canada that the United States had made an offer to get a ceasefire and then kickstart broader discussions.

European officials have been coordinating with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was also at the G7 summit.

Britain, France, and Germany, known as the E3 and party to a 2015 nuclear deal between world powers and Iran, held a ministerial call with Araqchi on Sunday. The three countries and the European Union are set to meet him in Geneva on Friday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei and an EU official said.

Earlier in the week, both Rubio and Araqchi told the Europeans in separate talks about a possible diplomatic initiative, three diplomats said.

A senior European diplomat said what emerged at the G7 was that Trump wanted the operations to end very quickly and that he wanted the Iranians to talk to him, while making clear that they had to accept his demands if they wanted the war to end.

Given the Israeli strikes and Trump’s rhetoric, diplomats said Iran was in no position to hold public talks with the US, but that a meeting with the Europeans as a link to try and advance diplomacy was deemed more realistic for Tehran.

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